Pre-release Deck Building

Building a deck for a Pre-release Event—an event where players get together a few weeks before a new set’s official release to play with cards from the new set—differs significantly from building a deck for the Standard or Expanded Formats. In a pre-release event, all players play in a Limited Format—where players are restricted to deck building resources provided for the event itself. This puts all players on a roughly level playing field and invites a much more laid-back, casual atmosphere.

At a pre-release event, players are provided with a Build & Battle Box from the set for which the pre-release event is being held. A Build & Battle box contains the following resources to help you build your deck:

• 4, 10-Card Pokémon Trading Card Game Booster Packs from the Pre-release’s set (Most packs also contain a Basic Energy card.)

• A 40 card preconstructed deck featuring 1 of 4 promo cards from the set (before Sword & Shield—Brilliant Stars, the kits instead included a 23-card Evolution pack, including the same cards, but without the Energy)

Pre-release decks are comprised of forty cards instead of the regular sixty and games played using pre-release decks are played with four prize cards instead of six. Like a regular deck, a pre-release deck must still include at least one basic Pokémon. Unlike a regular deck, the “Rule of Four” that restricts players to up to four copies of cards with the same name does not apply.

If your Build & Battle Box is from Sword & Shield—Brilliant Stars or later and you don’t feel comfortable building your own deck, you can simply use the 40-card deck exactly as it comes out of your box. If you’re using an older Build & Battle Box or if you're interested in tweaking the deck to improve it, read on.

Below is an example of what could come in a Build & Battle Box’s preconstructed deck. These particular Build & Battle Box deck contents were seen in St00ben’s Surging Sparks Build & Battle Box opening. The cards in the preconstructed deck have been broken into seven categories:

Primary Pokémon Type

Secondary Type

Other Pokémon

Pokémon Search

Draw Cards

Energy

Misc.

As you open the four booster packs that are included in your Build & Battle Box, continue to use these same categories to sort the cards, sorting each Pokémon type into its own pile. From there, you’ll have four options for how to continue with the construction of your deck.

No matter which strategy you choose, keep in mind the following loose deck skeleton for a pre-release deck:

Pokémon to Include

Pokémon you include in your deck should be at least one of the following:

1. A Good Attacker. A good attacker does reasonable damage for a reasonable attack cost. The higher the stage of evolution, the less reasonable an attack cost becomes. Low attack costs for mid to high damage are always best.

2. A Possessor of a Helpful Ability or Attack. A Pokémon with abilities or attacks that draw additional cards, help you to search for Pokémon in your deck, or interrupt your opponent’s strategy. Call for Family and similar attacks are especially helpful in pre-release decks as they can help you search for your stronger Pokémon when you don’t start with them.

3. A Free Retreater. A Pokémon with a Retreat Cost of zero can help you have an ideal Pokémon to promote when your Active Pokémon is Knocked Out. Free retreat gives you the flexibility to see what cards you draw into on your turn before committing a specific Pokémon and/or deck resources to your next attacker.

4. A Beefy Staller. A Pokémon with high HP can sometimes be helpful to stall your opponent long enough to get your primary attackers setup and ready to knock out your opponent’s Pokémon.

5. A Status-Happy Staller. A Pokémon with attacks or abilities that leave the opponent’s Pokémon Paralyzed, Confused, or Asleep can be the difference between winning and losing in a pre-release tournament. Because there are limited ways to switch out of status effects in a Limited Format like a pre-release, even little bits of damage from Poison and Burn can add up to a victory in the long run.

Trainers to Include

During a pre-release event, you should pretty much always include any trainers that are in some way beneficial to the deck you’re building. If a trainer is not helpful to your deck, exclude it. For example, you would not include Rose—a card that helps only decks built around a Pokémon VMAX—in a deck that contains no Pokémon VMAX.

If you find yourself with an overabundance of trainers and need to cut a few out, always prioritize keeping Trainer cards that help you draw cards or that help you find your Pokémon. These are the most important Trainer cards in any deck, and pre-release decks are no exception.

A NOTE ON ENERGIES

Unlike in Standard deck building, it is quite common for a pre-release deck to be built around two types of Pokémon (and, often, two main attackers) instead of being built around a single Pokémon. As noted earlier, a lot of pre-release decks will run roughly 13 energies (give or take a few) but will have to split those energies between two types. As an example, a deck with a Fire-type attacker and a Water-type attacker. Each preconstructed deck comes with Energy cards in it already, but you may find yourself cutting into your Energy to boost your deck’s draw power or Pokémon search capabilities and will need to consider which Energy cards to cut first. A few things will help you decide how to tweak the Energy split in your deck. Look for the following:

1. Does either attacker require only its type of energy to attack? Does the Fire-type attacker, for example, require one fire and one colorless for its primary attack?

2. Does one attacker have an especially high energy cost? Does the water-type attacker, for example, require three water energies to power up its attack?

3. Does either attacker have an attack that can be powered up entirely by either energy type?

4. Do secondary attackers have the ability to attack with colorless energies as the entirety of or part of their attack cost?

Other Helpful Notes for Pre-release

What to Bring

In addition to bringing yourself and the money required to participate in the pre-release event, here are a few other things you should consider bringing with you that won’t be included in your Build & Battle Box or otherwise provided to you:

• Deck Sleeves. Bring a minimum of 40 for your pre-release deck. This will help to keep your new cards protected so that you can play with them long into the future. My personal recommendation is Ultimate Guard’s Katana sleeves.

• Dice. Bring at least a single coin flip die and six damage counter dice. Bring more if you can. With bulky Stage 1 and Stage 2 Pokémon ex running amok, damage piles up faster than ever. You don’t want to run out of dice to keep track of damage.

• Playmat. While not required to play, a playmat is a good item to have with you to help extend the life of your deck sleeves.

• Perfect Fit or Penny Sleeves. These are the sleeves you’d use to protect the valuable cards from your kit that you don’t end up playing with in your deck. Don’t have them? Use some spare deck sleeves.

Above all else, remember that Pre-release Events are primarily fun ways to get your hands on cards from the newest set early. Far more so than even in regular play, pre-releases are very luck-dependent and your deck is unlikely to be especially consistent. Just sit back, crack your packs, and prepare for a casual, fun time. Don’t stress too hard about winning.

A Breakdown of Contents in Surging Sparks Build & Battle Box Preconstructed Decks

Each Build and Battle Box contains a preconstructed 40-card deck. In that deck are the promo card and three segments of cards worth taking note of, beginning with two Pokémon-centric groups—one influenced by the promo’s type and the other influenced by the type of another random promo card from the set’s Build & Battle Boxes.

This set’s Promo cards are pictured below.

Additionally, each preconstructed deck contains cards from two of the Pokémon Groups below.

In addition to the promo card and the cards from the two Pokémon groups, each kit often contains supplementary cards for your deck. These cards and Basic Energy cards will fill the remaining slots of your 40-card preconstructed deck, with each deck containing no more than two of each card listed below:

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